new ship, named the Deulabenit, owned by the king. William was also responsible for impressing privately owned merchant ships into royal service. These ships were used in the naval action of the Battle of Damme at Zwyn in 1213, when a fleet under William Longespee, the Earl of Salisbury, destroyed a substantial French naval force and sacked the town of Damme. In late 1213 William was directing the efforts of the seaports of south-western England and the Cinque Ports in naval affairs. He was also responsible for the setting up of a supply depot for the navy in June 1213, for which he received supplies from the diocese of Chichester. In 1214 William had custody of some royal prisoners. The same year, the king ordered him to return a merchant ship if he had indeed seized it from its owner, Joscelin de Hampton. Also in 1214, William co-founded the hospital of Domus Dei in Portsmouth with Peter des Roches, the Bishop of Winchester. The foundation was confirmed by the king in October 1214. John rewarded William for his service with churches in Sheppey and East Malling, which were granted in 1207, and the right to oversee the royal forests in Cornwall and Devon. Other grants included lands in Dartford and Sutton-at-Hone that had escheated to the crown, lands in Westminster and a prebend in the royal ecclesiastical foundation at Hastings. Later years and legacy During John's reign, Pope Innocent III placed an interdict on England, forbidding public celebration of sacred rites in English churches. William supported John, and remained in England. The medieval chronicler Roger of Wendover named William as one of John's "evil advisers", or "most wicked counsellors". Modern historians argue that Roger's account of John's reign, while containing some truth, was written to defame men who were prominent in the early years of King Henry III, John's son who had succeeded his father in October 1216. According to Nicholas Vincent, while Roger's account of the exactions and crimes of the members of his list of evil advisers certainly had a strong basis of truth, it was also greatly exaggerated. W. L. Warren agrees and points out that many of the details of Roger's accounts that can be checked with other records are wrong, making the other parts of his stories suspect. In 1215 William joined the baronial rebellion against John, and lost his naval offices, the royal forester's